Stingers close in on first place with win over Carleton

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team beat the Carleton Ravens5-2 Sunday afternoon at the Ed Meagher Arena. Forward Sophie Gagnon scored two goals and added an assist in the victory.

The Stingers won all four games played against the Ravens so far this season, outscoring them 19-3. They also won two of those by shutouts.

In the two games this weekend, the Stingers scored nine goals. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Stingers head coach Julie Chu was pleased with how her team competed against the Ravens, a team she calls a hard-working opponent. Chu wanted to see consistency from her team throughout the game.

“From start to finish, you could see it,” Chu said. “They scored a late goal. They don’t give up. And so for us, I think it’s trying to have to same intensity, focus, and urgency toward the way that we play.”

The Stingers took the lead early in the first period when forward Lidia Fillion scored her third goal of the season. “It was really great to see that our girls came out on fire in that first period,” Chu said. “They put us in a good place, and just kept getting better and better.”

Gagnon then added two goals in less than six minutes to give the Stingers a decisive 3-1 lead in the first. The forward gave credit to her teammates for her performance.

“I’m just at the right place at the right time,” Gagnon said. “When we need to put it [the puck] in the net, I do so.”

“[Gagnon] is not afraid to go to the net,” Chu said. “She competes in every moment, and I think that’s a big reason why she’s been successful over her career. She has that great determination. She’s willing to go through a knee, go through a wall to get a play done.”

Gagnon said the team had good zone exits against the Ravens, which created good offensive opportunities and helped the whole team produce in the game.

The first of Gagnon’s two goals was on the power play, and Rosalie Begin-Cyr scored a second power-play goal for the Stingers in the second period. Chu said the team really worked on reading plays and executing them at the right time.

“Today, I thought we did a really good job of moving the puck quickly, tape to tape,” Chu said. “Then, when we had opportunities to shoot and find shooting lanes, we were able to execute on those. That was really big.”

The Stingers finished the game with 39 shots, while the Ravens finished with 12. Goaltender Katherine Purchase registered her third victory of the season.

With an 8-4-3 record, the Stingers are still in third place, but sit three points behind first place, with five games remaining in the regular season. They play their next game on Feb. 1 in Ottawa against the Ravens.